The V&A’s Masterpieces of Chinese Paintings reveals treasures that have never left Asia

A Monkey by Mao Song, from the 13th century is one of many ancient treasures at the V&A (Picture: V&A)

‘I think, maybe, it’s not wise to do this,’ contemplates curator Zhang Hongxing, looking momentarily fazed by the size and scope of his V&A exhibition, Masterpieces Of Chinese Painting 700-1900.

‘It’s a long period; big country. But I’m trying to show the diversity; then people can see the richness. China itself is complicated, so you have to represent that.’

Wise or not, Zhang’s much-anticipated blockbuster survey opens this week. And just how diverse and rich 1,200 years of Chinese artistic tradition really is becomes apparent on our pre-exhibition China trip, which takes us from sandstorm-blasted, 8th-century Buddhist prayer caves in the Gobi desert to the lushly semi-tropical former dynastic capital Hangzhou, via Beijing and Shanghai’s treasure-stuffed great museums.

What emerges is a multi-stranded history of painting that starts with the influences filtering in from the Silk Road, sweeps through dramatic dynastic changes and the ebb and flow of Daoist, Confucian and Chan (Zen) Buddhist thought, ending with some of the first experiments with a synthesis of classical Chinese and Western styles.

For the exhibition, Chinese national treasures that have never before left Asia will sit beside other major international loans; some so delicate they can only be displayed for part of the exhibition’s run.

Ahead of this, we’re trying to grasp some of the elements that distinguish classical Chinese art: such as notions of use and display.

‘The scroll is the quintessential Chinese painting format. It was to be viewed on a temporary basis; unrolled by hand, then rolled back up and put in its box,’ explains Zhang.

Scrolls such as Court Ladies Preparing Newly Woven Silk were unrolled scene-by-scene, then rolled back up (Picture: V&A)

In Shanghai Museum’s VIP viewing room – a basement space made to look like a royal palace courtyard, complete with a painted sky – white-gloved conservators demonstrate the unfurling ritual when they give us a sneak preview of Du Jin’s Ming-dynasty (15th-century) silk handscroll, Court Ladies In The Inner Palace.

The scroll, which has been ‘resting’ for five years in preparation for its London debut, is unrolled from right to left, stage by stage, so the scenes pass you like a moving picture.

Hanging scrolls – such as the exquisite work of Ming-dynasty ‘birds and flowers’ specialist Lu Ji, are treated with equal care at the Palace Museum in Beijing’s Forbidden City. But neither of these works would have been considered desirable by connoisseur collectors of that era – the first was a ‘genre painting’, the second mere decoration by a professional court artist.

By that time, the literati had established themselves – reclusive ‘gentlemen’ scholars-cum-amateur-artists, who favoured spontaneous emotional expression over technical, imitative virtuosity and combined the twin brush arts of painting and calligraphy.

Their works are still regarded by many as the pinnacle of Chinese art – though Zhang admits the strict disdain for any form of excess might strike modern-day Western viewers as ‘a bit boring’.

At Hangzhou’s China Academy of Art, there’s been a boom in interest from students for the classical Chinese arts. Calligraphy and Chinese painting have a bigger market in China than Western art – calligraphy students’ work sells more than all the paintings, we’re told.

It’s something that contemporary Chinese artists, fresh from the explosion in international interest in their work, are now confronting. Renowned figures, such as Beijing-based Xu Bing, are questioning how in thrall many artists have been to Western traditions and are advocating a way forward that involves looking back.

China is the best place in the world for experimental art, Xu announces over dinner in a restaurant looking across the Forbidden City – but he laments the fact many artists ‘don’t know how to use the treasures from their own culture’.

His Travelling To The Wonderland installation – a response to the V&A exhibition that will be set up in the museum’s John Madejski Garden – aims to recreate a Chinese landscape in miniature that visitors can feel immersed in; respectful co-existence with nature being a cornerstone of traditional Chinese thinking.

But despite Xu’s assertion, he’s not alone: Phaidon’s newly published The Chinese Art Book, which skilfully juxtaposes works ancient and modern, shows a wealth of current Chinese artists engaging with and subverting their classical tradition. All the more reason to feel the masterpieces assembled for us at the V&A have as much to teach us as ever.

Masterpieces of Chinese Paintings: 700-1900 is at London’s V&A from Sat until Jan 19. www.vam.ac.uk